Louisiana’s Baton Rouge. A federal statute requiring young individuals to be 21 years old in order to purchase handguns was overturned by a U.S. appeals court on Thursday, citing Second Amendment violations.
Following a historic 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded gun rights, the finding, which was rendered by a panel of three judges on the conservative U.S. 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, came amid significant changes in the country’s weapon laws.
The court determined that it should not be illegal for those between the ages of 18 and 20 to purchase firearms.
In the end, the court stated in its decision that the Second Amendment’s language protects the right to keep and bear arms for those who are between the ages of 18 and 20. The decision returns the case to a judge in a lower court.
The age restriction has already been upheld by the appeals court. However, judges in states like Minnesota, Virginia, and Texas have overturned similar legislation after the Supreme Court’s decision that stated handgun limits must be based on the country’s historical traditions.
Those decisions had been challenged by the Biden administration. The Trump administration’s exact course of action is unknown, but during the campaign last year, he assured an NRA gathering that no one would touch your guns.
Last year, however, the Supreme Court ruled to uphold a federal firearms law. The high court upheld a legislation designed to protect victims of domestic violence and reversed a previous decision from the Fifth Circuit.
The Louisiana Shooting Association, the Second Amendment Foundation, and the Firearms Policy Coalition were among those contesting the prohibition. According to Alan Gottlieb, the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, “if we can trust young adults to defend our country, we can certainly trust them to own any and all legal firearms.”
According to Everytown for rifle Safety, federal law mandates that a person must be at least 21 to acquire a handgun from a licensed firearm dealer and 18 to buy a long rifle from a dealer. According to the group’s research, there is no minimum age requirement for long weapons and an 18-year-old minimum for pistol purchases from unlicensed sellers.
Age limitations help avoid violence, according to the Giffords Law Center, which referred to the ruling as foolish. David Pucino, the legal director, stated, “We hope the current law will be upheld in the end.”